Uses of Adding Single Quotes to Start of Excel Cells

Adding single quotes to the start of cells in Excel can be necessary in various scenarios to ensure data accuracy and proper interpretation. Here are a few scenarios where this technique might be useful.

Preserving Leading Zeros

When dealing with numeric codes or identifiers that begin with zeros, Excel might automatically remove leading zeros. Adding a single quote before such values prevents Excel from treating them as numbers, preserving the leading zeros.
Example:
00123 might become 123
'00123 remains as is

Preparing Data for SQL Queries

In SQL queries, single quotes are often used to denote string values. If you are creating SQL queries in Excel and have a list of values, adding single quotes ensures that they are recognized as strings.
Example:
Apple might become 'Apple'

Handling Special Characters

If your data contains special characters that might have specific meanings in Excel or other applications, adding single quotes can help avoid misinterpretation.
Example:
=SUM(A1:A10) might be seen as a formula
'=SUM(A1:A10) ensures it's treated as text

Creating CSV Files

When creating Comma-Separated Values (CSV) files, adding single quotes to cells can be beneficial. It helps maintain the intended format, especially when dealing with leading zeros or text that might resemble numerical data.
Example:
01234, 56789 might become 1234, 56789
'01234, 56789 remains as is

Also read
Add Single Quotes to Excel Cells Using VBA
How To Quote All Cells Of A CSV File
How to Put Double Quotes in a String in VBA

Extract Formulas From Cells Using VBA

In Excel, formulas are the backbone of data analysis and calculations. Extracting these formulas using VBA can be a powerful tool for various purposes. In this guide, we'll explore step by step how to use VBA to extract formulas from cells.

Here are a few scenarios where we need to extract formulas from cells using vba

• To help in keeping track of changes made to formulas over time.
• Analyze formulas to identify potential errors or inconsistencies.
• Extracting formulas can help you analyze dependencies and relationships between different cells.
• To partially automate the documentation process, providing insights of the logic behind calculations.

Now let’s see how we can develop a macro to extract a formula from a cell using VBA. First let’s see how we can get the formula from a particular cell we want. Let’s consider this example sheet.

This worksheet has some values from B1 cell to B9 cell. Then I have put the following formula in cell B11.
=SUM(B1:B9)

Assume the name of the worksheet is “Sheet1”. Then the following subroutine will show the formula of cell B11 in a message box.

Sub ExtractOneFormula()

   Dim WS As Worksheet

   Set WS = Worksheets("Sheet1")

   MsgBox WS.Range("B11").Formula

End Sub

Now we learnt how to get a formula from a particular cell using VBA. Next let’s look at how to get a list of all the formulas in a sheet with cell addresses. Let’s consider this example Excel sheet.

In this worksheet, Total sales in column D is calculated using formulas. For an example D2 cell has following formula
=B2*C2

Then Sales Ranking in column E is also calculated using formulas. For an example E2 cell has the following formula.
=RANK.EQ(D2,$D$2:$D$11,0)

Also % of Total Sales in column F is calculated using formulas. F2 cell has following formula
=D2/SUM($D$2:$D$11)

Then 3 fields(Grand Total Sales, Average Quantity Sold, Maximum Unit Price) in cells B13, B14 and B15 are calculated using following formulas.

Grand Total Sales	=SUM(D2:D11)
Average Quantity Sold	=AVERAGE(B2:B11)
Maximum Unit Price	=MAX(C2:C11)

Then here is the macro to print all the formulas and their cell addresses in the immediate window

Sub ExtractFormulas()

   Dim WS As Worksheet
   Dim Rng As Range

   Set WS = Worksheets("Sheet2")

   For Each Rng In WS.UsedRange
     If Rng.HasFormula = True Then
       Debug.Print "Formula in " & Rng.Address & ": " & Rng.Formula
     End If
   Next Rng

End Sub

In the above subroutine, the statement “If Rng.HasFormula = True Then” is used to identify the cells having formulas.

Also Rng.Address statement outputs the cell address of the cell and Rng.Formula statement output formula of that cell.

Also read
How to Add a Formula to a Cell Using VBA
Access Formula Bar Using Keyboard

Extract Only Numbers From a String Using VBA

In this lesson you will learn how to extract only numbers from a string using VBA. Here are some examples where extracting only numbers from a string can be useful.

Data cleaning in Excel
You have an Excel sheet with a column containing alphanumeric data, and you want to extract only the numeric part for analysis or calculation purposes.

Financial Data Processing
You are working with financial data that includes transaction descriptions, and you want to extract only the transaction amounts.

Web Scraping
You are scraping data from a website, and some of the retrieved text includes both numeric and non-numeric characters. You want to filter out only the numeric values.

Above are a few scenarios where you may need to extract only numbers from a string using VBA.

Now let’s see how we can develop a VBA program to do this. Let’s create a function to extract numbers from a given string. Name of the function is ExtractNumbers. It takes one parameter, InputString, which is expected to be a string. The function return will also be a string. Below is the step by step guide on how to develop this function. You can find the completed function and test subroutine at the bottom.

Function ExtractNumbers(InputString As String) As String

End Function

Next we need to declare 3 variables.

Dim i As Integer
Dim Char As String
Dim ResultString As String

i is used as a loop counter. Char represents a single character in the string. ResultString will store the extracted numbers.

A For loop is used to iterate through each character in the inputString. The loop starts from the first character (1) and continues until the length of the string (Len(inputString)).

For i = 1 To Len(InputString)

Next i

Mid Function extracts a single character from the InputString at the position i and assigns it to the variable Char.

Char = Mid(InputString, i, 1)

Check this microsoft documentation to learn more about mid function.

Mid function

If Statement checks if the extracted character is numeric using the IsNumeric function.

If IsNumeric(Char) = True Then

End If

Want to learn more about IsNumeric Function? Then check this post.

IsNumeric Function

If the character is numeric, it is appended to the resultString

ResultString = ResultString & Char

Following line is used to return the extracted numbers as the result of the function.

ExtractNumbers = ResultString

Here is the full code of the ExtractNumbers function.

Function ExtractNumbers(InputString As String) As String

   Dim i As Integer
   Dim Char As String
   Dim ResultString As String

   'Loop through each character in the input string
   For i = 1 To Len(InputString)
     Char = Mid(InputString, i, 1)

     'Check if the character is a number
     If IsNumeric(Char) = True Then
       'Append the number to the result string
       ResultString = ResultString & Char
     End If
   Next i

   'Return the result string containing only numbers
   ExtractNumbers = ResultString

End Function

Now let's create a subroutine to use the ExtractNumbers function on a sample string. This subroutine initializes a string, calls the function, and prints the extracted numbers in the Immediate Window.

Sub TestExtractNumbers()

   Dim originalString As String
   Dim result As String

   'Example string with alphanumeric characters
   originalString = "ProductA123"

   'Call the function to extract numbers
   result = ExtractNumbers(originalString)

   'Display the result in the Immediate Window
   Debug.Print result

End Sub

Run VBA Code Automatically on Workbook Open

In Excel automations, running VBA code upon workbook opening can streamline processes and boost efficiency. From this post you will explore the possibilities of this advanced feature, allowing you to tailor Excel to your unique needs and maximize productivity in your daily workflow. Then this article will guide you through the steps to run a VBA code when opening an Excel file using an example.

First of all let’s explore the possibility of this advanced feature.

• Data Refresh: If your workbook relies on external data sources, running VBA code on open can trigger an automatic refresh, ensuring that your data is always up-to-date.
• Security Measures: You may want to use password prompts when opening the workbook, ensuring that only authorized users can use the file. For this you can use this technique to show a login form when opening the workbook. Check this post to learn how to show a userform automatically when opening an Excel file.
  Show Userform Automatically When Opening Excel File
• User Interface Customization: You can use this technique to VBA to customize the workbook's interface, displaying specific sheets upon opening. For example, your workbook may have several worksheets and you may want to show only a particular worksheet on the workbook open. This is the usage I showed in the example below.
• Initialization Tasks: Running VBA code on open is handy for initializing variables, setting default values, or configuring the environment to default state.
• Version Control: You can use this technique to VBA to log information about when the workbook was last opened, helping with tracking changes.
• Connected Workbooks: In scenarios where multiple workbooks are interlinked, running VBA code on open can establish connections.
• Alerts and Notifications: Displaying alerts or notifications when opening the Excel VBA application. In some Excel VBA applications you might need to inform users about important updates or pending tasks whe he/she opens the application.
• Automated Backups: This technique can be used to create an automatic backup system for your Excel VBA application. For an example you can tell the VBA to create a backup every time when a user opens the application. Or you can limit it to create only one backup per day if the user opens the application multiple times within one day.

So now you explored various possibilities of this feature. Next let’s learn how to write a code to do this. I will explain this using an example.

This example belongs to user interface customization. Assume your workbook has 3 worksheets called “Input”, “Report”, “Settings”. Suppose you want to only show the “Input” worksheet when the user opens the workbook hiding the other sheets. Users might be able to see other sheets using buttons while using the application.

Now first of all we need to develop a simple macro to show only the “Input” tab hiding other sheets.

Sub ShowOnlyInput()

   Worksheets("Input").Visible = True
   Worksheets("Report").Visible = xlVeryHidden
   Worksheets("Settings").Visible = xlVeryHidden

End Sub

Note that there are different ways to hide worksheets using VBA. Some methods don't allow users to manually unhide sheets when hidden with VBA. Check this post if you like to learn more about hiding and unhiding worksheets in Excel.

Hide And Unhide Worksheets Using VBA

We can put above simple code inside a module of the VBA project. Don’t know how to insert a module to a VBA project? Then check this post.

How to Insert Modules in Excel VBA Projects

Now we need a way to run this subroutine when the user opens the workbook. To do that we can use the workbook open event. Events are occurrences or triggers that happen within the Excel application, and VBA allows you to write code that responds to these events. So if you write a code inside the Workbook.Open event then it will be executed when the user opens the workbook.

Follow these easy steps to add code to the workbook open event.

Go to the VBA editor and double click on the ThisWorkbook Module.

Now select “Workbook” from the first dropdown.

When you select the “Workbook” from the dropdown, the second dropdown will be automatically changed to “Open” and the following code will be added to the ThisWorkbook module.

Also if you look at the second dropdown, you will notice that there are lots of other events available related to the Workbook object.

Now we can run the previous subroutine we wrote by calling it from inside the Open event of the Workbook.

Private Sub Workbook_Open()

   Call ShowOnlyInput

End Sub

Also instead of putting the code in a separate subroutine, you can put the code directly inside the Workbook_Open event as follows.

Private Sub Workbook_Open()

   Worksheets("Input").Visible = True
   Worksheets("Report").Visible = xlVeryHidden
   Worksheets("Settings").Visible = xlVeryHidden

End Sub

But it is always a good practice to divide the code into meaningful sections. Because it enhances readability, maintainability, and overall code quality. When code is divided into sections, each part focuses on a specific task or functionality. This makes it easier for developers (including the original coder or others) to understand the purpose and flow of each section.